: Activities in the Whitehead lab revolve around Evolutionary and Ecological Genomics research. This line of research seeks to understand how genomes integrate cues from, respond to, and are shaped by the external environment. We examine genomic responses to stress that occur over physiological timescales (acclimation responses) and over evolutionary timescales (adaptive responses). Many complementary approaches are integrated into our program, including genome expression profiling using microarrays, population genetics and phylogenetics, and physiology, to study how individuals and species respond to and adapt to environmental stress. Stressors of interest include those that are natural (temperature, salinity) or of human origin (pollutants).

Whitehead, A., J. Roach, S. Zhang, and F. Galvez (2011). Genomic mechanisms of evolved physiological plasticity in killifish distributed along an environmental salinity gradient. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(15): 6193-6198.